Restarting more seeds

4/12
Chris looked up some information on soil and reasons why seeds may fail to germinate. He came across this website and discovered that
            "When using blood meal, partially composted manure or poultry-manure based fertilizer be aware that these high N sources need some time to allow for microbial activity start breaking the organic forms of N and drive them to nitrate (the process called mineralization). If planted into too soon, when first wetted and just starting to break down, these materials may give off ammonia, organic acids and other compounds that can damage germinating seeds and young plants. It is best to moisten the potting mix at least a week or two before you plant into it, making sure it stays warm and allowing time for phytotoxic compounds to dissipate."

So our best guess on why the seeds either were too slow to germinate or just completely broke down is because of the excess ammonia gas from the soil. It could of also been the sand or manure we purchased. Either way it is a pain and lesson learned: Buy potting soil to make soil blocks and screw making our own soil. The cost savings is not there and it takes way too much time and effort for the chance to negatively effect the seeds. 
I replanted some seeds in the same blocks and some came up and other still didn't. Gardening seems to teach you something every year. Always a challenge, but the reward is there when I can pull out a jar of tomato sauce in March or make a complete dinner from the garden during harvest time. 

Tomatoes and eggplant germination

Our seedlings this year are definitely taking longer to germinate than last year.  The mudroom is cooler than the loft space (wood stove below) and I am guessing that is the reason?? Our peppers are very slow to germinate. We had some hot peppers germinate today 4/6, but when you dig down to the seed, so are ready to come up and others look rotted. So we may just put new seeds in the same spot to insure enough pepper starts. Not sure if they got too much water and then it was too cold??? Every year is different, but we still have a lot of time before any of the plants will be going into the ground. The snow has just melted off the garden, but the ground is frozen solid.

 Our lettuce and spinach is finally looking good and ready for transplant. The cold frames were prepped today by Chris and the plants got some fresh air and sunshine.

 The broccoli and cabbage have their true leaves and are looking strong. A few of them died off which got us worries, so Chris planted another whole tray of them.

Yea for tomatoes!! The tomatoes germinated on 3/30 ~7 days long. The eggplant germinated on 4/3 ~11 days long. They are looking good and getting ready to snip the doubled up plants. 

The onions and leeks aren't looking the best.
Chris planted another tray of each so we can make
sure that we have healthy plants

The flowers are looking good and are continuing to germinate.